Unofficial news and tips about Google

November 6, 2010

Undocumented Gmail Shortcuts for Composing Messages

Gmail's keyboard shortcut for composing new messages is "c", but there are two undocumented shortcuts that let you compose a message, while also adding the CC (carbon copy) and the BCC (blind carbon copy) fields:

b - compose new message and add both CC and BCC

d - compose new message and add CC

To use these shortcuts, you first need to enable keyboard shortcuts in Gmail's settings page. Gmail is the only Google service that doesn't enable keyboard shortcuts by default.

If you enable labs feature "custom keyboard shortcuts", the new settings tab lets you customize all keyboard shortcuts, including these. I realize this probably doesn't qualify for "documented", but at least it's not totally hidden (as in "easter egg")...

@Alex G. I feel your pain on ctrl+k and have really gotten used to it in Docs. I often find myself wanting to use it in Gmail. Now, if we could just get _some_ keyboard shortcuts in the Docs folder page. "Life would be a dream."

I wish when double clicking a word to highlight it, (to add "bold", "underline", etc.), it would not include the space AFTER the word also. It is very annoying and time wasting. In Microsoft Word and other programs I work with, double clicking a single word does not include the space too. I keep hoping Gmail will fix this bug.

Does anyone know if there's a keyboard shortcut to press the send button? I can't find it and would be very useful as I use Google Chrome with DragonDictate and nothing I can say will press the send button after dictating an e-mail.

It's a keyboard shortcut. For example, you can press c to compose a message, z to archive a conversation, / to start typing a query. Instead of pressing c to open the message composing section, press b or d to see some additional fields.

To sum up, open Gmail and type b (or d), the same way you would press F1 or Ctrl-Alt-Del. It's a single character shortcut.